Are law school exams and the LSAT similar?

Although it's not too surprising, an interesting study conducted in 2004 suggests that the LSAT does a better job of predicting how well you'll do on in-class tests than on take-home exams or assigned papers.

This power to predict, however, is important to admissions committees because most of your law school GPA depends on in-class tests. In fact, most classes base your grade on nothing but one three-hour final exam at the end of the semester. Much like your LSAT score, your grade depends on one great performance.

The study concludes that the LSAT's time constraints make it most similar to in-class exams. In short, speed matters on the LSAT and in law school.

Your GPA, on the other hand, does a good job of predicting how well you'll do in all three scenarios -- in-class exams, take-home exams, and assigned papers -- which is probably why law schools look at your GPA right after they look at your LSAT score. These numbers aren't perfect, but they start to reveal what you've done in the past and what you'll likely do in the future.

That said, preparing for the LSAT does more than just prepare you for the test itself. Students who invest themselves develop the very skills the exam is testing. And that prepares you for law school.

For those who are interested, here's the original study:

Speed as a Variable on the LSAT and Law School Exams

Beware, it's a 3 MB PDF.